The Great Depression II... Can We Survive

I've been with ATS for almost a year, and I believe this might be my 2nd post... however, with that being said.

My parents were survivors of the The Great Depression and so although we had a very good childhood, my parents always tried to emphasize the way "life had been"... My parents made a decent living, my father in the trades, my mother stayed at home.... We were of middle class however, my parents were quite frugal...giving us better than they had but making sure savings took precedence to extras.

Now most families have a huge mortgage, 2 cars in their garage, a great tv or 2 and a credit debt that would boggle the mind.... And no savings. Their kids have cellphones, their own car, an ipod and at least 1, if not 2 $300 gaming systems.... And no savings.

The Great Depression was caused primarily over Credit... The stockbrokers and the Stockholders learned how to purchase stocks without actually having any money. When the Stocks became worthless you still owed the full amount that you had borrowed... ie: you buy a house on loan valued at $240,000 only to find that the house is only worth 140,000 - not good, hmmm. The general population had done the same....buying, buying... no money in the bank, just have a great time and spend (Sound familiar???)

Now, we are so very close to experiencing a depression that will far surpass that of our previous generations. Why? The stock market is showing severe signs of weakness from both a home and global perspective. The value of the $1.00 is showing continued signs of weakness as other countries are beginning to devalue the dollar. Our trade deficit is at a record high (meaning we owe big time) Our manufacturing jobs have primarily gone elsewhere (meaning we have become a nation of consumers and not producers, as well as being dependent on other countries for a staggering percentage of what we consume) by the way this raises our unemployment rates...

So I ask you, how will we survive the next Great Depression???

Farming was a big thing back in the 1930's - how many farms are left today (by the way, that was the only way people were able to eat back then..)

In the great depression, people ate whatever they picked from their garden, whatever they could trade with to the farmer and bought a luxuxy such as coffee at the grocery store (what would our children do if you put a loaf of bread on the table and said that was dinner?)

People are in debt up to there eyebrows, The housing balloon provided people with houses they normally could not afford, now with interest rates rising there have become a record number of foreclosures.

A nation who can produce nothing to sell can make no money.

A consumer nation needs to spend money.... but where will we get it???

So, how will we survive the next Great Depression?

Sorry, I forgot to leave any links ;-)

www.hyperhistory.com...
www.greatdepression2.org...
tlcf.osn.state.oh.us...
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu...

Thought provoking post!!

I do have a problem with one aspect of the post though. It's wrong to say that the US produces ALMOST NOTHING anymore. There are more new millionares than ever before, that money is coming from somewhere. The US has replaced the industrialists of old with a whole new breed of entrepenuers. Today a teenager can become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams right from his parents home via the internet. We may not be building the worlds hard-goods anymore but we are building the software to run it, the drugs to save lives, the media to entertain the world, and much more.

Our economy has reshaped itself several times in the 230 years since we declared independence and the real engine that drives it is still fully intact. It's the free market and the spirit of entrepenuerism that keeps us going.

If you ask me government regulation is a bigger threat than credit and debt. The harder the goverment makes it to find new streams of revenue for the average american the harder it will be to pay off all that debt.

I also remember my Mother and Daddy and my Grandparents telling me about the depression.
My Grandma and Granddaddy always had a nice big garden and Grandma would can everything she could . At one time they even had a cow named "Bessie" that Grandma would milk everyday.
They had chickens that laid eggs and Grandma would clean the chickens and make a great meal for all of us.

You really made me think about the things that I buy that I could do without and save the money.

I'm open for any suggestions that anyone may have on how we could sustain ourselves if a great depression, or worse, a terrorist act would prevent us from going to a store to buy alot of items like food, paper product etc.

This is a great thread and it deserves alot of input from other members of ATS!


[edit on 18-7-2006 by MagicaRose]

Actually this will make it great on Social issues

My mother also remember the depression and the lines to get food.

People were more agrarian at least in my small island of PR.

Perhaps people that still own a piece of land will be able to survive . . . all they have to do is go back to make their land productive. . .

But in the urband world of cement people will have a hard time . . .

Still I think we will survive, but regretfully many will die if everything becomes scarce.

Very thought provoking post, but like the guy before me we do still produce, especially technology. Our economy is very close to going over the edge with inflation at an all time high, when was the last time they raised minimum wage?? prices of natural resources soaring and along with that everything else that needs shipping or is made from byproducts will go up. I hope that after our next depression our government gets rid of the section in the constitution that says congress can spend on American credit. And we go back to having a curency backed by gold.

Excellent point on the production aspect of the thread. I should have indicated Manufacturing jobs. I know one of the things that helped pull them out of the depression was the manufacturing jobs. I live in a city where we had lots of paper mills which was actually the reason people moved here. They employed a lot of our middle class people. All the plants have closed now and have gone overseas, leaving many unemployed and with no hope of finding that type of work again.

No we won't.

How many people under 30 do you know who have a garden? How many have an iPod?

Draw your own conclusions.

It is hard to imagine everyone going back to that type of lifestyle, that I completely agree with. I would have to say our children, with all their many toys and gadgets, are ill equipped to handle that type of struggle. I go to the grocery store and as I shop for the Cheetos for one, the favorite cereal for the other, etc... would my kids even survive without the cheetos? It is hard after having it so easy to imagine going back to where it is so hard... It is sad we couldn't have learned better after the first time around to make sure history was never repeated.

reply to post by looking4truth


that is pure fluff. we need to produce the things we use, food energy , fuel, hard goods. tangibles. not your worthless tripe